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WSMT s05
Info When Scrivy Met Twilight (List of stories) << previous scene | Scene 5 | next scene >> Text Scrivener had been given a very interesting project: Celestia said someone very important was coming to Equestria, and he was supposed to write a short sonnet in honor of this. She said the theme was sisters coming back together, and that it should play off the idea of opposites working in harmony. Or, if he couldn't work with that, the theme of the night. And most interesting of all, she wanted it done that night. It was a little difficult, but Scrivener finished it, edited and reworked it several times, and was rather pleased when Celestia approved it because he thought he'd done a good job himself. He'd gone to bed feeling a little smug, thinking of how he was going to brag to Twilight Sparkle the next time he saw her that her mentor liked him more than she did her own apprentice. The next day, he found out that Twilight Sparkle had been sent to check on the Summer Sun Celebration preparations in the little town of Ponyville, and Scrivener Blooms grumbled to himself and tried to tell himself that writing a personal poem was definitely more important than... overseeing an entire one-thousand-year-anniversary celebration in... oh who am I kidding? Stupid unicorns. Stupid Twilight. Stupid... me. Then came the night... the night that threatened to last forever, when the sun didn't rise, and news that Celestia had vanished and Nightmare Moon had returned spread far and wide across Equestria like wildfire. Scrivener Blooms spent it in his apartment by his lantern, writing to keep himself calm, pretending he wasn't worried about the Princess, and he definitely wasn't worried about Twilight Sparkle, and trying to tell himself everything was going to be okay. When the sun rose, it brought with it relief: when news spread far and wide that Twilight Sparkle and her new friends had been the ones to save Princess Celestia, Scrivener had told himself that was envy in his stomach, and he definitely wasn't... proud of her. No, he had no reason to be, none at all, because they still hated each other and it was just one more damn thing for Twilight Sparkle to hold over his head. Princess Celestia had returned, but cloistered herself up in her quarters with the pony who had been rumored to be Nightmare Moon for the evening, and the entire day that followed. But the next night, the Royal Court had been called to a grand meeting, and Scrivener Blooms had admittedly been curious to meet the 'Night Princess' that had returned. The only thing anyone knew about so-called 'Princess Luna' was gossip and old stories... and Scrivener wondered curiously whether or not the accounts of Nightmare Moon really were true or not, and this actually was the fabled sister of their Princess of the Sun. The entire Royal Court assembled, and Scrivener grumbled from the back row as he tried to peer over the heads of ponies as Celestia gave a short speech. But he could barely see the meek-looking winged unicorn that half-hid behind her enormous sibling: all he could make out was that her mane looked like starlight, and her coat looked blueish. It wasn't long before Scrivener got his first up-close view of Princess Luna, however: that very night, Celestia called him to her room. Luna had been half-hiding in a corner, and Celestia had almost protectively placed herself between her and Scrivener, although he hadn't been able to resist leaning slowly to the side to try and peer at the Night Princess while Celestia listed out all the things she wanted done. He had quite an expansive list: archives and files to be updated, new pages to be written for compendiums and anthologies, histories to be modified... some of it was above and beyond his duties, but for once Scrivener wasn't complaining. Partly because he felt... a little nervous, admittedly. It was like now that Princess Luna had returned, Celestia wanted to write her back into recent history. He could understand why, but at the same time, something about it struck him as... odd. For a month, he worked on the list, mostly keeping out of trouble, and finding himself working out in the library a lot, like he expected to one day run into Twilight Sparkle. But everyone knew that the Princess had reassigned her to Ponyville for some reason, and it didn't give Scrivener Blooms quite the joy it should have, since in a way it was like he had triumphed. She, the elite unicorn, was relegated to some dumpy little backwater, and here he was, the slave hoof, still Court Poet. Then, one day, Scrivener was called to meet with the Princess... Princesses, he corrected himself. It was hard to get used to... especially since Celestia seemed to be insistent on continuing to handle everything herself, and Luna seemed to be a princess only in name. He was surprised, however, when he strode into the dining hall where he'd been summoned, and found both winged unicorns sitting at the table and waiting for him. Luna often followed Celestia around: he thought she was probably a little scared, and he couldn't exactly blame her. He knew what it was like to be an outsider, but he didn't kid himself that even being a jerk as he was, he could know how it felt to be seen as... evil. Or perhaps just pathetic... but he thought that being pitied like that would be far worse than hated. His eyes studied her as he drew close: she had a peytral and a tiara like Celestia did, but hers were black metal, the chestplate marked with the image of the crescent moon like the cutie mark that adorned her flank. Her raiment and her stature weren't as impressive as her sister's, but her eyes... something about her eyes struck him. Celestia frowned a little at him, and Scrivener cleared his throat as he quickly turned his gaze to her, before the Princess of the Sun said slowly: "Scrivener Blooms, I don't believe I've introduced her to you yet... but this is my sister, Princess Luna. I would like to reassign you to acting as her personal assistant." "Like... like a secretary?" Scrivener looked up lamely, and when Celestia frowned deeper at him, he winced a bit and held up a hoof. "So does this mean I'm fired?" Celestia blinked in surprise at this, and then she smiled a little as Luna scowled a bit. "Not necessarily... I... suppose you'll still be Court Poet, Scrivener. But I want you to be the one to stay at my sister's side, to teach her about our day and age, and most importantly to help her with her language difficulties. I'd like to move your quarters to the old wing of the castle as well." "Oh. So... can I call this a promotion?" Scrivener asked finally, and when Celestia gave him a mild look, the stallion held up his hooves before turning his eyes to Luna. They looked at each other, and then Scrivener Blooms finally cleared his throat and said finally: "Hi. Nice to meet you, Luna... I mean, Princess Luna." The sapphire mare reared back in surprise a bit, then shifted a little before Celestia reached out and touched her younger sister's shoulder, and Luna finally replied moodily: "It is... nice to meet thou as well, poet. My sister has told me much of thee. I am... eager to get started." Luna looked anything but, and Scrivener smiled a little despite himself, nodding a bit as he watched her mane sway silently around her. Then Celestia glanced back and forth between the two before she smiled, and said gently: "In that case, let me walk you back to my sister's quarters, and you can begin immediately." Scrivener and Luna both looked up at Celestia in surprise, but then both of them shrugged and followed when Celestia stood up from the table. The walk was silent and a little awkward, but Scrivener did his best to keep himself serious and professional, not quite daring to test the boundaries just yet: he didn't know anything about Luna, and more importantly, Celestia seemed very protective of her. All the same, the ivory mare left Luna in Scrivener's care in what he guessed was her quarters: a lonely-looking stone room, outfitted only with a circular blue bed and a large, cracked window, currently with the curtains drawn over it. They had stared at each other for a while, and then Scrivener had decided to just awkwardly leap into things and hope for the best. He lamely went over what he could remember about modern speech in the simplest terms he could, wishing the whole time he had some of his textbooks to double check his definitions. Luna just stared at him, but when he prompted her, she grouchily began to attempt changing her strange dialect. Scrivener liked listening to her, though... and he thought he liked the way she spoke more when she was using thees and thous over when she was attempting to bluster her way through yous and yours. Of course, it also got a little frustrating. Scrivener recognized Luna's old, strange dialect as using an auditory descriptive grammar: basically, she used a 'thee' or a 'thou' not based on whether it was grammatically-correct by the established prescribed standard, but when it simply sounded nicer. It made her speech flow like music to his ears, but it also made her sound a little... awkward, if you knew anything about grammar. And he imagined it would probably really stand out in written form. Luna grumbled about this, then finally complained loudly: "'Tis ridiculous, Court Poet! I do not desire to speak... so... slangishly as thou and the other ponies of this modern age do. And there are much more important things for me to learn and... where has Celestia gone? I desire to see my big sister." "Celestia left me with you for a reason, Princess Luna. Look, I'll... ask someone to go and fetch her after we do one more sentence, okay?" Scrivener half-pleaded, and Luna fixed him with a grumpy look. "Please?" "Nay, 'tis nonsense. I have been doing well, I think. And 'tis only our first night, I believe that I have been doing very well." Luna said firmly, and Scrivener Blooms closed his eyes and rubbed his head slowly at her childishness. "Yes. Yes, this has been going just swell." he muttered finally, and then he winced a bit when Luna looked up at him with a frown, leaning away from him a little. "What is swollen?" she asked suspiciously, eying him and leaning a little back and forth, and Scrivener stared at her wordlessly for a moment. Then he realized that she had taken him literally, not understanding how he'd used the word, and he rubbed at his forehead again as he realized morbidly how many definitions must have changed over the years since she'd last heard the words, and how big a task teaching her was going to be... even without the fact she was now glaring at him like he was going to try and molest her or something. "...great." "It has swollen... large?" Luna's face puckered further, and then she slowly, slowly began to lean down, and Scrivener stared at her before he winced and stepped hurriedly backwards, suddenly very glad he was wearing his cloak even as he sat on his haunches and tried to make a wall with his front legs over his body. Particularly his lower body. "Let's... let's just move on, okay?" Scrivener said finally, but Luna was still looking at him with her eyes narrowed, and he wondered morbidly if this was the reason why Celestia had apparently dumped her little sister on him and run away. "Thou does not look swollen large." Luna said suddenly, raising her head imperiously, and Scrivener stared at her before she added grouchily: "Except for thy head, that is." "Oh wonderful, now I really feel like I'm foal-sitting! Really, you're giving me the time of my life." Scrivener retorted before he could stop himself, and then he winced a bit and covered his mouth as Luna frowned at him. "What, thou enjoys this? Thy words make no sense." Luna complained, and Scrivener dropped his head forwards a bit. And again, his mouth decided to run before he could remind himself he was talking to a Princess, not a unicorn noble: "No, that was sarcasm. Do you know what sarcasm is? And if you don't, that was a real question, by the way." Scrivener realized a moment later he might have gone too far with the glare that Luna fixed him with, and then she strode slowly over to him, looking down at him as the lanky stallion looked lamely up at her. She wasn't Celestia's size, but she still had a good height advantage on him, and much more worryingly at the moment, she could and probably was about to yell at him, then fire him. And then, suddenly, Luna swung her head forwards and whacked him firmly with her horn, sending him sprawling stupidly on his back as he gaped up at her in disbelief. His mouth worked, and then he scuttled up to his hooves... only for her to firmly bop him again, making him wince and quail a bit before she said firmly: "I do not like thee. Thou art an idiot." "Well, I do not like thou." Scrivener shot back before he could stop himself, and Luna glared at him before her horn glowed, making him squeak as he was hefted into the air by telekinesis, and he rose a hoof and wheezed: "You're... you're much scarier than the ponies I usually pick on. The worst they've ever done is send guards after me. I can outrun guards." "Well, Scrivener Blooms, do not ever think thou could outrun me." Luna replied, but she looked pleased with herself before the glow died out from around her horn, and Scrivener flopped to the ground in front of her, looking lamely up at the winged unicorn as she looked down at him with a smile. Then she blushed suddenly, faltering a bit as Scrivener flinched away from her, and suddenly she looked nervous, hesitant... almost vulnerable. Scrivener slowly crawled to his hooves, shaking his head out before he looked up at her, and she looked across at him as if waiting for him to run away. But after a moment, he couldn't help but smile, stepping towards her and asking quietly: "So... you're not going to fire me?" "Why?" Luna asked, looking honestly surprised, and when Scrivener smiled wider, she frowned again, moodily studying him. "Oh, what, thou wishes thou wert assigned to someone else, is that not so? That thou wert far away from fearsome and evil Nightmare Moon?" Scrivener looked at her for a few moments, and then he remarked: "You're really whiny for the evil and fearsome Nightmare Moon." Luna looked shocked at this, then glared and stepped forwards, smacking him again with her horn and making him wince, and he covered his head and glared up at her. The two locked gazes, challenging each other, testing each other, silently studying each other... and then Scrivener finally straightened and brushed at himself, asking dryly: "So are you going to hit me every time I'm a jerk?" "Aye, I shall." Luna replied pompously, and then she straightened a bit and smiled across at him. "Art thou going to run away or not, Court Poet?" "Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm your assistant now, not the Court Poet so much." Scrivener replied quietly, and when the sapphire mare smiled wider at him, his heart fluttered a little bit before he cleared his throat and straightened, holding out a hoof. "So, Princess-" "Luna. Only Luna." the mare said firmly, and Scrivener smiled in return at her before Luna glanced down at his hoof and added: "And nay, Scrivy, I am supposed to offer thou my hoof, and thou kisses it as a sign of fealty. Not the other way around. But fear not, I shall not demand this of thou, mostly because I fear where thy sordid mouth has been." "Oh, you and I are going to get along just great." Scrivener remarked mildly, and when Luna laughed, he couldn't help but give her an entertained look and think that maybe he wasn't being so sarcastic after all. Category:Transcript Category:Story